New worldbuilding post for @creators-club
I don't think I talk about my pixies enough.
They're large insects in the same family as bees and wasps, and visually they have very similar body types to their smaller cousins.
Pixies have only been legally defined as people for a couple centuries, as the vertebrate people around them took a while to truly realize how intelligent they were.
Much to their chagrin, the pixies accepted their new legal personhood with the announcement that they had also been observing the vertebrate folk and trying to decide if they were civilized and sapient enough to define as people by pixie standards.
Before all this, pixies had been viewed as rather dangerous insects to be avoided for fear of their venomous sting. The goblins used to eat them, and only increased their pixie consumption during the goblin revolution to get pixie venom into their skin mucus as a form of biological weapon.
The vertebrate folks apologized profusely for the way they used to treat pixies, and the pixies accepted the apology. You see, pixies are actually quite advanced in their technological skills, and much like the crews of star trek, they had been practicing observation without interference for centuries. They watched the vertebrate people and took note of their advancing development but never interfered or gave them access to more advanced technology, and accepted their attacks on pixies as a hazard of the job, the unfortunate casualty of performing close observations on dangerous creatures.
Pixies do not view death the same way other people might view it. Their hive population have a collective connected memory, so every individual who dies still leaves their memories in the hive, absorbed into the collective like a ghost. Their individual life may be mourned, but their body was merely a vessel and extension of the greater hive population. Pixies have fairly short lives as it is, though they live much longer than most insects. The average pixie might live up to 10 years in ideal conditions. Their egg layers live longer, up to 50 years if they're lucky. It's the drones who have the shortest life, only surviving for 6 months if they never mate with an egg layer, and less than that if they do, because the mating process inevitably kills them.
Drones, the only "males" of the species, are viewed almost as sacred beings, carrying their own hives memories over to an ally hive and then giving their lives to ensure the next generation can be born. They are protected and treated with a great amount of ceremony by their birth hive and the hive who will receive them.
Pixies have a hard time understanding individualism. They have individual personalities of their own, of course. But they're so intrinsically connected to their hive, instinctively and actively doing what's best for the collective, that the concept of individualism simply confuses them. It seems so inefficient.
Pixies are very organized workers. They have two main biological castes; hive workers and scouts. Hive workers remain in or near the hive, doing construction work, keeping the hive clean, caring for eggs and larvae, managing food storage, etc. Scouts work outside the hive, performing scientific observations, protecting the hive, and gathering food. They are also messengers.
Most pixie technology is only useful for pixies. They make what they need, to solve problems and make their lives more comfortable. Technology to better protect the hive from weather changes, to reinforce the structure of the hive, or to store food better. Their pupation silk is capable of conducting energy, which they have used to great effect within their hives, much like electrical wiring. Through the use of magic, silk wiring, and carefully constructed devices, they have also found ways to temper their wax and create new forms of it with unique properties.
Pixies rarely use metal, since thye have no way to forge it without causing serious danger to themselves and their hive, but when they can find it in small pieces that are easier to shape, they use it in their most important technology, such as simple radios and telegraphs. They have also shared this technology with the vertebrate people, and worked alongside them to create larger devices. Pixies have become a staple of every community, thanks to their communications technology.
The single most interesting bit of tech the pixies have created is a device that allows them to communicate with the vertebrate people. The vertebrate people are so limited in their communication, after all, they can't use pheromones or connect with a hive mind. So the pixies have crafted small devices that produce sound when vibrated. Only the most skilled scout pixies can use them to full effect, altering the vibrations of their own bodies to produce a wide variety of sounds rapidly enough to synthesize a spoken voice.
The sound of this synthesized voice is very similar to the robotic monotone of early computer speech, so it can be difficult to understand, but people have gotten used to it.
Pixies continue to perform scientific studies on the vertebrate people, who perform studies on the pixies in return. Now that they are working with each other in a more mutual way, their studies have greatly improved.
While they have no need for names or even pronouns within the hive, scout pixies like to pick names for themselves when they interact with the vettebrate people. They typically pick a name by stealing a random word or phrase they have overheard, one which pleases them and suits their personality in some way.
Toss-a-Log. Bundle-Up. Dozen. Drunk-Bastard. Get-Back-Here. Bless. Fresh. What-is-That.
Pixies also avoid using pronouns and filler words when they're using their vibration devices to speak to vertebrate people. They prefer to be as direct and clear as possible.
Pixie coloration varies by region, and each caste of pixie has a different pattern to their coloration.
So far I've only come up with one color variety.
(Image description: the first image shows pixies with blank outlines, comparing the sizes of their different castes. Drones are the smallest, at three inches, and have no stinger. Scouts are five inches and have a large stinger as well as fuzz on their legs and abdomen. Hive workers are six inches and have a much smaller stinger. Egg layers are eight inches and have a very large abdomen. The second image shows them all in color, with a black and yellow striped pattern. The drone and egg layer also have blue iridescence on their abdomens, and the scout and hive worker have slightly different stripe patterns. End description.)
